NEW WAYS TO LIQUEFY YOUR TUBE ACRYLICS

AND DO IT WITH COMMON HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS!

 Today’s post is an addition to or further exploration of my last post, where I used Future floor polish (now called Pledge Floor Care with Future shine), basically a clear acrylic emulsion about as viscous as vegetable oil. I learned that it was a great extender or flow improver. Future floor polish is also both a great clear coat on finishes (especially on Yupo!), and a barrier between two different kinds of finishes.

Thin, flowy acrylics can be used to drip, spatter, pour, as an ink in pens, airbrushes, and squeeze bottles. They also make great glazes, especially when added to clear acrylic medium. But thinning acrylics can be tricky! Your paint MUST be like skim milk WITHOUT any lumps! I thinned and creamed the tube or craft paint with a little water first.

Many of you may already know that isopropyl alcohol can be splattered into wet, fluid acrylics to create a cool effect.

Well, it can also be used as an acrylic paint thinner! But this time I will discuss another unconventional, unexpected thinning medium. 


This stuff works great to liquefy acrylic paint!



Thinning Acrylics with Glass Cleaner

In its usual form, glass cleaner is a blue tinted liquid. Unlike the floor polish, glass cleaner has no acrylic binder so it cannot extend the paint, merely thin it. Glass cleaner has a tiny amount of detergent and some alcohol to reduce surface tension of the water. Most glass cleaners also have ammonia which helps to keep acrylic emulsions liquified.

TIP: Next time you finish a painting session with leftover paint, make some of it liquid and pour into a clean spray or squeeze bottle. Be sure to label the bottle as "fluid." 

Hey, thanks for viewing this post...I hope you try this stuff, as well as
the floor polish and the alcohol!

And have fun, fun, fun till your daddy takes the T-Bird away!



PAINT CURLY LINES WITH THREAD - A WILD TECHNIQUE

Here's your chance to throw...not caution,

but thread to the wind!

Okay, not even to the wind, but do try this art method. It's great!

(Needed materials are in bold print.)

For the example here, I used an old canvas with a collage - painting that didn't work. I wanted a primary color scheme of red, yellow, and blue, with white and black too. Before trying the art technique, I daubed on some acrylic paint to cover some areas here and there.

This is a detail of the canvas already prepared for the painty thread.

When it was dry, I cut some sewing thread into a length of about 12". I wet the thread with water to condition it for the paint to come.

Next, I needed a chopstick, a stiff drinking straw, or a round paintbrush handle.  I dipped the stick into a cup of paint. Then I ran the damp thread through the glob of paint that was on the stick. After pulling the thread off the stick, I put the painty stick back in the cup. I held the thread by one end over an area on my canvas and tossed it down. Slowly, gently lift the thread up off the canvas to find a lovely, curvy mark!



Another close-up view, now showing some painted marks.

If you give this a try, reload and continue with more crazy curliness as desired. Don't over-do, of course, and use new thread if the old one becomes too stiff as the acrylic paint dries.


The  finished collage - painting in its entirety.



CREATE GORGEOUS PAPERS WITH THIS TECHNIQUE

I had some black tagboard and the urge to experiment!

Any black or dark surface will work with this method: how to make lovely metallic paper for collage or backgrounds or whatever you wish. (TIP: Tape the paper down!)

You'll also need interference paints (acrylics) and a crackle medium.

I tried another crackle brand too, and it worked as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First, mix just one of your interference paints in a small container with water to thin it, and set aside. I did not do that with the gold paint, and it was too thick to work, as you will see later.

Next, apply crackle medium thickly to the black substrate, and work fast so it doesn't dry before the next step.

    

This is just the wet crackle medium on black.

Then quickly drip the thin interference paint into the wet surface. It will spread and maybe even separate a bit. 

The gold paint didn't work because it was too thick!



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MORE TECHNIQUES WITH CITRASOLV

I tried more methods of creating visual texture with CitraSolv on magazine papers...these decorative papers can be used in collages, mixed-media paintings, and more. Previous posts with tips on using CitraSolv can be found here and here!

With the one shown above, I covered the entire page (taken from Elle magazine) with a thin coat of CitraSolv concentrate, and used the large-size bubble wrap, pressing it well into the solution. Then I just let it sit overnight!
Here's one, below, made with bubble wrap with smaller bubbles, and a page from Lucky magazine.

Is this one your favorite too?

Next, I used plastic wrap, pushing and shoving it
into big wrinkles on the solution. See below.

This one was done with a page from Bazaar.

Finally, I had a bottle of the blue school glue (it's washable), and I used it as a mask or a resist, let it dry overnight, and then rubbed with a CitraSolv-soaked cloth to remove the ink that wasn't protected. See above.

There's a section with examples of CitraSolv papers in the book, Creating Decorative Paper.

Thanks for viewing this post! (Let me know
if you're inspired to try some of these ideas.)

HOW TO ALTER MAGAZINE PAPERS WITH CITRASOLV

Why buy collage papers when you can make your own, really cool

papers for mixed-media creations? CitraSolv is a natural

cleaning product that dissolves the inks in some magazine papers.



I tried to avoid obscuring the figure completely.

Needed Supplies:
CitraSolv (the concentrate)
National Geographic magazines as old as the 60s! I also had luck with Bazaar.
Smock (optional)
Latex gloves
Foam brushes
Q-Tips or a rag (optional)
Container for product (glass or plastic)
Stencils (optional)
Clothespins and a line

Here’s How:
Work outside if possible, as the product has a very strong scent.
Prep a surface to work on. You will want an area to dry your papers,
so you might set up a string clothesline on which to clip your pages.
NOTE: Use care that the product should not get into your eyes or mouth!

1. Prepare a work area. Set up your drying area as well. Put on your gloves. Pour some CitraSolv into a glass or plastic tub (margarine containers are good) and use a foam brush to spread CitraSolv liberally on the colorful pages in the magazine, working from the back to the front of the publication. Smear each page around a little to soften the dyes!

2. When you are done, let the magazine “cook” for about 5 minutes. Check it by opening a page in the middle to see if it looks good yet When you like the results, cut or tear the pages out and hang them up to dry. Both sides will be altered and it may be hard to choose which is better!

NOTE: Be sure that the image you altered is unrecognizable. If it cooked long enough, it will be nothing like the original. This will avoid any copyright issues…don’t use it in your art if you can still tell what it is and where it was from.

My favorite technique for removing ink is to use a stencil as a mask over the page, wiping the exposed parts with a CitraSolv-doused rag. 

Using a stencil is easy with CitraSolv!





This one took a stencil well.



Here I masked with rubber cement!

I also suggest trying a mask of either rubber cement or acrylic medium. When either has dried
(though rubber cement remains sticky), THEN use the CitraSolv with a rag! You can rub off the sticky rubber cement later!
When you have finished papers you like, I recommend spraying your page with a workable matte fixative to stabilize the ink and reduce smudging.



MATERIALS FOR DIFFERENT MIXED MEDIA EFFECTS

Elsewhere on this art blog I have previously discussed a number of media and common household products to create many textures and to use with a wide variety of techniques. See plastic food wrap here, and masking fluid here.



You can even use rubber cement as a resist material!

You can imprint designs with fabrics, too! Below are a few other techniques to remind you of the possibilities!
Today we'll use water-soluble media (liquid watercolors, fluid acrylics) on cold press watercolor paper which I taped down and pre-wet with water.
In the first example, I washed in deep color and placed wooden sticks in it at once. Then I let it dry with the sticks in place.   

The wooden dots did not work!




Ok, MY result isn't terribly good.

Try other items! You'll have better luck!
Another technique: Scratch into wet paper before washing color over...the broken fibers absorb color differently than the rest of the paper.   

This method is good for scribbles, lines, grasses....

Thanks for viewing this post!



EASY IMPRINTING OF WATERCOLOR OR LIQUID ACRYLIC

TWO SIMPLE TECHNIQUES!

 

The first method uses plastic shapes cut from shopping bags. I made boulder-like forms by wetting watercolor paper, placing the plastic shapes firmly down on the damp paper, and painting washes around them.

Let dry before removing the plastic. Then develop the painting further. See mine below.



I have a video of making this on YouTube!

The next technique is also a resist method for imprinting a painting. I wanted a garden-y, trellis-y effect for a painting with leaves.
Fold waxed paper, open it up again, and lay it into a wet wash of vivid ink or fluid paint. Press it down with a sheet of glass on top. Let dry before removing the glass and the waxed paper.


Waxed paper texture at work! Folded examples at right.

Embellish and make marks as desired to
achieve the effect you want!

This is a detail of the finished piece.





WINNER ANNOUNCED, AND BLASTS FROM THE PAST!

The name chosen from the hat (actually a bowl!) to win the free art book, Creating Decorative Paper, was Geri deGruy! My thanks to the others who participated, and I encourage them to please try again...I'm planning another giveaway even as we speak.

One section of that book concerns resists of many types. I've discussed them here before, and love to incorporate them into my mixed media work. Clear tar gel on absorbent paper can produce fantastic results if you let it dry, then wash vivid color over the area.

Can you see the fish shapes?

 Here's the original post.










Wax resist is another simple, easy method: In the butterfly example below, I used waxed paper. The tutorial is here.


I adore these colors!



I used a fabric resist material here.
See the original post!

             


 

EASY COLLAGE TECHNIQUE - FAST & SIMPLE

MIXED MEDIA -- 

A GRAPHIC TRANSPARENCY

ADDS IMPACT

A bold, high-contrast black and white photograph  (without grays) is best for this method. Print the transparency.

Select text, smaller imagery, and other papers in keeping with your subject-matter. Arrange them on a sturdy background, auditioning the transparency before you glue down the background. Consider your composition.

Because a busy, dark collage beneath the transparency will be too, too much, you must lighten portions of the papers with a gesso- or pale gouache-wash, or use white pastel. Let dry. The transparency will have more graphic punch, more of an impressive effect, if the collage underneath  it  doesn't "fight" with it.

Use your own favorite method for attaching the transparency. Some people just glue it at the edges, while others affix it with scrapbooking findings or other means.

From a book by Paula Guhin

Digital Collage or Hard Copies in Successive Sizes

What Lies Beneath 

Take your photographs to a completely new level—several, in fact. Build a layer cake, of sorts, with…um, layers! Besides working with digital images, you can even do this project with successively sized photocopies or enlargements of the same image, creating a collage.

Photo copyright P. Guhin 

To Begin

It’s important to select a borderless photograph with graphic impact. Close-ups work well, as do longer shots with simple, empty backgrounds. A cluttered-up photo is too “busy” for this activity.

Lay It On

On a background of your choice (even a full page-spread of the featured photo itself), paste a copy of the image, scaled a bit smaller. Lose the rectangular format if you wish—the image can be square, oval, circular, even free-form! Adjust the brightness or tone of this second layer as needed, for better demarcation from the background.

 Center this photo or use informal balance. And now a word about that!

Balance

Combine the elements of a layout in a way that adds a sense of stability. Equilibrium can be achieved with symmetry or asymmetry.

 Symmetrical balance refers to a formal design in which the two halves of the piece mirror each other.

 An asymmetrical arrangement is informal and takes into account the visual weight of each part. For example, a large, pale shape on one side can be balanced with two small, dark shapes on the other side. Darker values appear “heavier.” The same holds true of bright, intense color—a spot of it goes a long way!

Build It Up

Repeat the process of pasting in another layer of the same image, scaled smaller than the previous one. If you wish to create an asymmetrical design, move this copy up, down, or to one side.

If you’re offsetting consecutively smaller images, you can either rotate each slightly or maintain a level appearance, whichever you prefer.

Variety and Contrast

Be sure all your layers show up well. Desaturate every other layer (if the original image is in color), or adjust color balance differently in each layer. One cool option is to work from lighter to darker layers or the opposite. The possibilities are endless!

 If you’re using photocopies or printouts, set the copier or printer progressively lighter if desired, or use a different color of paper for each print.

Finally, if you wish, add text and any other embellishments in such a way that they do not interfere with the visual impact of your striking design.

 Do try this project—instead of a level playing field, play on a field of levels.

Embossing Aluminum Foil for Paintings and Collages

Aluminum foil from the kitchen can be embossed, collaged, and painted. 

Some people use heavy string or cord under the foil.

Heavy duty foil is best for this, but any type will do. Cover one side of a piece of foam core with the foil, wrapping the edges and gluing them to the back. Use the tip of a dull pencil to form ridges, flat shapes, and patterns in the foil.

I filled the spaces with a deep layer of medium.

Paint it with alcohol inks, glass or metal paints, or acrylics. Take note of the image transfers used in this example, as well as inks and acrylic medium.

Also see the post  I did eons ago on this very same subject!

TUTORIAL ON USING DECORATIVE NAPKINS IN YOUR COLLAGES

PAPER NAPKINS, AUTUMN LEAVES, & A COLLAGE - PAINTING

It's so easy to use store-bought imagery in your work, and this lesson is extra-cool because the paper napkins can be quite translucent! 

I bought these paper goods in two sizes for a little variety.

To make the imagery translucent, you need to separate the top, printed ply from the rest of the napkin. 

The edges are micro-perforated to hold the layers together, so I tear those off first.

I usually discard the edges.

Peeling off the top, printed layer!

The printed sheet was too busy before!

I used a sturdy sheet of commercial scrapbooking paper as my background for this painting - collage. I added areas of acrylic paint to not only make it my own, but also allow the tissue-like leaves to show up better.

TIP: Napkins with a white or light background work the best! Apply acrylic polymer fluid both below the napkin shapes and again on top.

 

I also used text and pictures from an old book.

I felt the piece needed more, so I "blew" some branch-like lines with a drinking straw and ink. I also painted in my own version of a bird in flight.

The finished collage - painting.

Thanks for viewing this post!

TWO EASY TIPS FOR ADDING TEXTURE TO PAINTINGS OR COLLAGE

Create interesting texture the easy way with these two ideas, on paper or canvas, in a journal or an altered book! 

TEXTURE: the way a surface feels to the touch (or looks as though it would feel).

I've used acrylic paint with this pair of simple techniques, but watercolor, ink, gouache, even spray paint would work.

If you have a bundle of raffia, shown at left below, cut some of it randomly. You likely want some shorter, some longer pieces, some thicker, some thin. And it doesn't matter what color the raffia is!

Rubber bands (right above) in a variety of sizes are good!

Apply the pieces to a dry canvas that's been gessoed. Adhere with plenty of gel medium. Allow to dry.  Then paint a medium-toned color over all and let that dry too. I used a golden ochre color since I didn't like the magenta.

The texture pieces can also be applied to a previously-painted area!

Not the prettiest textured area just yet.
Next, wash in a thin, very dark shade that sinks into the crevices. 

The finished texture example, with dry-brushed areas.

When the dark wash is dry, dry-brush a light color over the very tops of the textured pieces.

I glued elastic bands on with gel medium in the orange how-to example below. When that was dry, I covered all with the bright color.

             My substrate here is heavy paper.                          

  Then I used the same steps as I did above with raffia pieces. 

Try it! I'll bet yours will be more successful!